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Getty Images/AFP Joe RaedleA man carries an American flag to be placed at a memorial in front
of the Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center where four US Marines
and a Navy sailor were killed on July 18, 2015 in Chattanooga, TennesseeWashington (AFP) - The
man who shot and killed five US troops in Tennessee suffered from depression, his family said in
Four Marines and a sailor were killed in the attack -- which authorities are treating as "an act of
terrorism" -- before the gunman, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, died in a shootout with police.
"There are no words to describe our shock, horror and grief," Abdulazeez's family said in a
statement cited by an NPR public radio journalist.
"The person who committed this horrible crime was not the son we knew and loved," it added.
"For many years, our son suffered from depression. It grieves us beyond belief to know that his pain
found its expression in this heinous act of violence."
Expressing its condolences to the families of the victims, the Abdulazeez family also vowed to
continue to cooperate with law enforcement.
Investigators are seeking to determine a motive behind Thursday's rampage on two military centers
in Chattanooga.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has asked foreign intelligence agencies to help trace
Abdulazeez's movements and activities abroad, and analysts are monitoring his activity on social
media.
The 24-year-old was a naturalized US citizen born in Kuwait.
"Every one of our resources are being devoted to this investigation," Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke
told CNN.
But the FBI warned against jumping to conclusions, after Michael McCaul, chairman of the House of
Representatives Homeland Security Committee, branded the assault "an ISIS-inspired attack," using
an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.
"At this time, we have no indication that he was inspired by or directed by anyone other than
himself," FBI special agent Ed Reinhold said, referring to Abdulazeez.
The shooting has jarred the city of 168,000, where the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga
condemned the attack and canceled its end-of-Ramadan Eid al-Fitr celebrations out of respect for
the victims.
- Troubled past? Going into the weekend, more details emerged about Abdulazeez, a University of Tennessee
engineering graduate and mixed martial arts enthusiast who grew up in a middle-class
neighborhood.
Investigators were looking at Abdulazeez's foreign travel, with a reported trip to Jordan last year of
particular interest.
There was evidence that he came from a troubled family. Divorce papers filed by his mother alleged
https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/depression/symptoms